Chummers Paradise

Character Creation and House Rules

None of the rules on this page are set in stone. They still need to be play-tested. If it turns out they don’t work, we will default to the rule books until a workable solution is found. Any section lined out like this is not in effect but not yet eliminated. It may still be put in effect.

Be sure to review the character creation process in the SR3 handbook, as other than point buy over priority, it is the guideline for character building.

Books In Play

The the only books in play are the Shadowrun 3rd Edition books. The main books are:

Sourcebooks, such as New Seattle and State of the Art 2063 will also be used. Sourcebooks are generally reserved for me during gameplay (and dont let me know you read them cover to cover by pointing out what I am doing wrong…..) due to the amount of what I consider “GM Only” information contained in them, but players may use rules and ideas from them if they talk to me about their concept / idea first.

Character Creation

We will be using the point buy system detailed in the SR Companion. I am not allowing Shapeshifters, Ghouls or Otaku at this time. All of the metavariants are available at this time though.

Players may build 120-125 point characters.

No more than 12 points may be spent on any one attribute, and all racial modifiers are applied after those points are spent. There is a 60 point cap on Attributes. Each Attribute point costs 2 build points, as listed in the SR Companion.

No more than 6 points may be applied to any skill, and no skill may start out higher than six (6) (seven (7) for specializations). Skill points cost 1 build point, as listed in the SR Companion.

No Attribute may be zero (0) or less, and no skill may be zero (0). If a skill is at zero you don’t have it. If you have a bonus to an Attribute due to race, you do not need to spend any build points, but if you have a negative to an attribute due to race, you must spend build points to offset it to a minimum score of 1 (for example, an Attribute modifier due to race of -2 requires a minimum of 6 points spent to bring it up to a 1).

If you have more than six (6) points in either Edges or Flaws, we need to talk. In no case may any character start out with more than eight (8) points in either/both Edges or Flaws.

Level 0 Contacts
Level 0 contacts are not complete strangers, nor are they regular points of contact for a character. They are people that the character knows by name or sight, or someone who happens to know your face, maybe a name, and recognizes you. The clerk in the local stop and rob you frequent – you know him by name maybe, face definately, but he only knows you by what you buy… vanilla soycaf and choco-tacos at early morning hours. That guy. They are less helpful and more expensive per “use” than a Level 1 contact, but they tend to be cheaper in the long run and won’t abandon you because you haven’t bought them a soycaf lately.

Level 0 Contacts Costs

Cost:

500¥

Upkeep cost:

0¥

Spacer to close the gap

FoF Modifiers

Target #:

+8

Cost/time:

5

Wrong Party:

-4

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Contacts have their own contacts:
Rather than the one each of a Level 1,2 and 3 contact as detailed in SR Companion, p62, each contact will have the total numbers of each type randomly generated.

Core Book

Skills
I am using the optional rule of automatic background knowledge skills based on active skill levels of 4+.

For each Active skill level of 4+, a character receives the background knowledge skill at 3 less. For example, Pistols-5 gives the character Knowledge: Pistols (K/Pistols on the character sheet) at 2. Characters can take specializations in these free skills or add points to raise them. They are still limited to a maximum rating of 6 at character creation.

Unless your character has the “illiterate” flaw, you also gain R/W skills in languages you speak at 1/2 (round down) the level you speak the language.

SIN
Each player must decide whether or not their character is a citizen of the UCAS (or another country- expatriates are fun too) or not. This is determined by having a legal SIN (System Identification Number) issued to you. If you do not have a SIN you cannot get a permit for items requiring them, among other problems. If you have a SIN you can be traced easier. You can acquire fake SINs at a price.

Lifestyles
You may maintain multiple lifestyles in multiple names, or the same name if you want to. Just pay the cost.

Excess Starting Funds
If you have over 10,000¥ of your starting resources left over, divide the remaining by 5 and that is your starting ‘cash’. If you have less than 10,000¥ then divide it by 3. If you have less than 2,000¥ left over, that’s what you have left. Be aware after your character has been approved by me, legality, street index, and availability rules come into play.

Resources during character creation:
The maximum resources you can purchase with Build Points is 1,000,000¥. Any additional funds desired can be negotiated with a loan from the Bank of GM. We will discuss your characters history and determine the source of the loan in-game, and you will have that as a no point value Flaw. It will be something you will need to track during game.

Starting Contacts
During character creation you may purchase additional contacts for your character. All characters start with 2 free level 1 contacts. For 2,500¥ you may combine them into a single level 2 contact.

As a side benefit, I require the player to generate the contacts of his character, so you can customize them to your needs. Ain’t I a generous fellow?

Additional contacts basic cost

Type

Cost

Upkeep cost

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Level 1

5,000¥

(Acquaintance)

500¥

Level 2

10,000¥

(Buddy)

3,000¥

Level 3

200,000¥

(Friend for Life)

7,000¥

This buys a contact of the desired level that will be built with 50 points using the point buy system exactly like characters, including resources. You may purchase a contact built at a higher point value according to the following table:

Type

Points

Cost / Additional Upkeep

Spacer to close the gap

Just Johnny

50 point build

0¥

Some Skills

75 point build

1,500¥ / 150¥

People Know Him

100 point build

5,000¥ / 500¥

Contemporary

125 point build

20,000¥ / 2,000¥

Professional

140 point build

50,000¥ / 5,000¥

Got a Rep

160 point build

100,000¥ / 10,000¥

RED

190 point build

200,000¥ / 20,000¥

Maintaining a higher point contact is also more expensive. Upkeep costs an additional 10% of the cost of the contact “upgrade”. For example, a Level 2 contact with the Contemporary upgrade would cost 3,000¥ + 2,000¥ (10% of 20k¥) annually. Keep in mind these are annual costs and can be paid “in kind” with tips, gifts, favors etc. all add up for upkeep.

Weapons and Ammunition additions and changes:

Ammunition Weight:
Ammunition does not all weigh the same for every damn weapon from a tiny hold-out pistol to an assault rifle! Use the modified ammunition list on the Ammunition Chart page rather than the list from the book for all except heavy pistols.
In addition, multiple types of ammunition can in fact be loaded into a weapon (esp. shotguns), but the list of what and in what order must be written for the GM to be able to verify.

Tracers:Use the rule as is from SR3 except:
1. Tracers do count for bursts and full auto firing.
2. Loading more than every 3rd round as a tracer will eventually cause the weapon to incur 1 stress point and need a stress test.
3. Tracers give no benefit when firing single shots. Weapons incur 1 stress and must make a stress test after 20 rounds fired if loaded every round and after 60 rounds if loaded every other round. When properly loaded every third round, the weapon only makes stress tests if regular maintenance is not done.

Tracker ammunition:
Tracker Ammunition has a maximum flux rating of 2 for up to light pistols/SMG’s, 4 for up to rifles & MG’s, and 8 for shotguns. Battery life for continuous transmission is (Rating / 2) hours. AOD transmitters can be activated for transmission (Rating * 250) times before wearing down the battery. They have a standby time (still on but not transmitting) of (Remaining Transmits / 2) hours. The transmit frequency or power (i.e. effective Rating) can be changed (lowering it only, Flux rating cannot be increased) only by a receiver module. They cannot be encrypted. I.E. an AOD tracker fired from a Ares Predator can have a maximum Rating of 4, giving it a range of 6km (before modifiers), with a maximum standby time of 500 hours and a maximum of 1000 activations before the batteries die. Using the hand held receiver, the Rating could be stepped down as far as 0, and the frequency set to a custom one.

Flux degradation at range.
All transmitters transmit a certain distance based on the flux rating of the device. It is unreasonable, when considering distance between transmitters, to use the full flux rating. For example, a rigger is running drones with a flux 8 RCD- ignoring modifiers he has a maximum range of 20 km. Another rigger is within 1km of those drones and attempting to hack the signals with a flux 3 RCD. To determine relative flux ratings, first subtract the distance to the receiver from the maximum range and use the flux rating for that distance (from the flux rating table p137 SR3) to determine the flux strength at that point. For example Rigger A (Flux 8 RCD) is transmitting 20km to his drones. Rigger B (Flux 3 RCD) is only 1km from those same drones and is attempting to infiltrate one of the drones. Rigger A’s effective flux is 0 (20km max-20km actual) while the effective flux of Rigger B is 4km max – 1km actual = 3km, which is between flux 2 and flux 3 so flux 2.333 rounded down to 2. Use this modified flux rating for Miji tests. Always round down. The rating of the RCD stays the same regardless of distance.

Grenades:
All grenade damage will be staged by rolling a number of dice equal to 1/2 the power of the grenade vs. a target number 4. The successes gained will stage the damage.

|20mm Grenade Launcher|SS|1|b|1.5| -.25 ( r )|375|

Shotgun rules changes:

We will make some assumptions here. First, we shall assume that birdshot is not likely to be used for running (tho I could possibly see some uses). Second, rather than do individual gauges for shotguns, we shall simply separate them into “Heavy” (12 and 10 gauge) and “Light” (16 gauge and up). All shotguns in the books are “Heavy”. Any bores larger than 10 gauge will be figured out later. Therefore, Heavy shotguns firing shot shells can hit a MAXIMUM of 9 targets with “00” buck, and Light shotguns a maximum of 6 (see shot shell rules below). NOTE: Shot ammunition is NOT flechette ammunition. A shotgun firing flechettes uses the flechette rules.

All Heavy Shotguns suffer double uncompensated recoil (a second round fired will incur a +2 recoil modifier instead of the standard +1, 3 round burst has a +6 modifier, +12 on the second burst if fired).

Light shotguns have an additional recoil modifier to all shots after the first (+2 for second shot, +4 for 3 round burst, etc…).

For all ballistic weapons:
If there are multiple targets in a line, the ones behind have cover from the shot, unless the shot is staged up to Deadly, or staged down to Light. If so, roll 2d6 and on any doubles result the shot was a thru and thru: no 3 additional dice for damage resistance. This is based on the final staging but it must stage up from its base damage first. If the shooter doesn’t generate enough successes to stage the damage up, ignore this rule.

Flechettes:
Flechette firing weapons are considered to have a choke setting of 5 (Shotguns use their choke setting, minimum 4). Use shot spread rules listed above but with the SR3 damage adjustments for flechette ammunition. Use the chart below for maximum possible targets hit (per round) by weapon type. If there are more targets available than the listed number of maximum targets, roll for damage on each target until either everyone within range is tested or until the maximum number of targets are hit. Needlers can have a manually adjustable choke (min 4) installed but it cannot be adjusted without tools (i.e. modern chokes)

Hand grenades and mini-grenades from SR3 are significantly different systems and sizes. For instance, hand grenades weigh in at .25kg and concealability of 6. Mini grenades are .1kg and concealability 8. According to research, mini-grenades conform to the datum for 20mm grenade launcher ammunition, except for the unexplained identical damage codes for the two weapons. So, either, mini-grenades cannot have a fragmentation effect, or the damage codes are wrong. Grenades are thus being redefined.

AP grenades use the shot shell rules above for damage adjustment rather than the flechette rules. Replace “Spread range” with the blast reduction radius, and the maximum number of targets is 25, 20 and 15, based on size and ignore the number of targets limitation for the first “spread range”. Grenades still use the “chunky salsa” rules.

Chunky Salsa Effect: include floors and ceilings in the blast modifiers for explosions indoors. It’s the little things.

20mm grenades do not scatter unless they hit something before the arming distance or detonating range (for timed air burst rounds) is reached.

Hand Grenades come in 2 broad varieties, aerodynamic and non-aerodynamic, and in 3 sizes, Hand, Mini and Micro. Mini grenades are smaller versions of Hand grenades, and Micro grenades are tiny little bombs which come only as HE (High Explosive), AP (Anti-Personnel), White Phosphorus, or concussion. Hand sized and minis are as described p282 SR3 under “hand grenades”, the difference being mini’s are simply a smaller grenade. Disregard the section on “Mini-grenades” and see below “20mm Grenades”. Micro grenades have a cap and safety and can be set to detonate from 5-15 seconds after activation, or with a trip wire.

Example of grenade damage
_Tommy the Wad finds himself in a pickle and decides to clear the next room with a couple of grenades. pulling the first, an Offensive HE hand grenade, he sets it for impact detonation and throws it in the room. On impact, it detonates doing 10S damage to anyone within 1 meter. between 1 meter and 2, they take 9S, and so on and so forth. We shall ignore the walls and floors for the time being. Rolling 5 dice vs. target number 4 we shall assume 4 successes. The 4 successes stage the damage up to deadly, then deadly overdamage. Everyone within the blast radius of 10 meters must make a damage resistance test against the blast.

Underbarrel ConfigurationThe weapon is designed to be mounted underneath the barrel of another weapon. All but the base frame and barrel is removed and a special mounting is added. FCU of the frame are reduced by 75%, and cannot use top mount extras. It is now Mode: SS, Ammo cap: 1, Ammo Load: Break Action. Design options or customizations can be used to modify the weapon after the Underbarrel configuration is applied.

|DP:|+25||FCU:|x.25||Weight:|x.25||Concealability:|+3 / -2 to weapon it is mounted on|

8 Weapons equipped with grenade links or smartlinks with rangefinders can set the grenade to detonate at a specific range rather than on impact. If the grenade hits a barrier prior to reaching the designated range, check to see if it breaches the barrier rating. The grenade does 5M Ballistic damage in this case, and if it breaches the barrier it will detonate at the set range. If not it will ricochet, roll for scatter and it will still detonate at the set range. Even if it bounces back at the shooter.